After teaching at the University
of Westminster I worked at The Guardian (UK) for twenty years as assistant foreign editor and chief foreign
leader-writer (1983-2003). With my wife and constant partner for over 50 years, Aelfthryth Gittings (who
died in December 2012), we brought up four sons and travelled widely in
South America, Asia and Europe. In 2001-03 we set up The Guardian's first staff office on the Chinese mainland, in Shanghai.
Afterwards we moved to Shipton under Wychwood in Oxfordshire, becoming
active in local historical research, CND, and the Labour Party.

Having specialised for many years on China and East Asia, I am now working on the history of peace thought, and published
a book on this subject in 2012 (see below). I am a Research Associate at the China Institute, School of Oriental & African Studies,
London University, and an Associate Editor
of the Oxford International Encyclopaedia of Peace. In November 2015 I served as a judge on the International People's Tribunal on 1965 Crimes against Humanity in
Indonesia, and co-edited the Final Report.

'We need all the insights collected in Gittings's
impressive book and more, enriching our culture with
more capacity to cooperate, empathize, reconcile and resolve conflict.' (Johan
Galtung, International Affairs)

“This is a
wonderful study of the subtler “arts of peace"….wide ranging, informed, andinformative”. (Oliver
Richmond, Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology).

"Eminently readable, this book would make a great gift for
the activist and sympathetic non-activist alike, providing inspiration from the
glorious heritage of peace activism down the ages." (Peace News, Dec. 2012).